Singh's wife recants domestic assault accusation

The domestic altercation between a local doctor and his wife was apparently just a misunderstanding, and the case will be dismissed if the couple has no other problems for the next six months.

Dr. Vijay R. Singh, 43, was arrested Dec. 4 around 7 p.m. after police were called to his residence at 1531 Robin Hood Lane. Court documents said Singh’s wife called 911 and said she was assaulted by her husband.

But at Singh’s court hearing Thursday, the allegations seemed to have changed.

“The state takes these incidents very seriously,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Rasnake said during the brief hearing before Sessions Court Judge James Nidiffer.

Rasnake said after extensive conversations with the victim, Radhika Singh, 34, he reached an agreement to offer a six-month delay. If Dr. Singh has no other unlawful behavior and no violent contact with his wife, the case will be dismissed.

“Mrs. Singh said she was not threatened and did not want to press charges,” Rasnake said.

Singh was also required to relinquish his handgun carry permit while the case is pending.

In a court document, police said Singh threatened to shoot and kill his wife after she told him she planned to return home to their native India.

In an affidavit of complaint filed against Singh, Johnson City Police Officer Sarah Wright said Singh’s wife, Radhika, 34, called 911 reporting that her husband had assaulted her. She gave police her account of events leading to her husband’s arrest.

Mrs. Singh told police the couple had been having relationship issues and she decided to buy a plane ticket and go back to India. Her husband came home from work and became angry after finding that she had booked the flight.

He told her he would not pay for the ticket and that she could not take their daughter to India. Mrs. Singh was holding the child at the time, and her husband grabbed the girl trying to pull her away, but the woman held on.

Singh then slapped his wife on the face, and she slapped him back, prompting him to take a pistol from behind his back in his waistband and rack a round in the chamber. He pointed the gun in the air and said, “I will blow your brains out,” the complaint said.

Mrs. Singh replied that he did not have the guts to do that and walked upstairs to call a neighbor to ask if she could go to the neighbor’s house. She then left and went next door.

Police arrived and could see through a window that Singh was inside the house with a handgun in his waistband. Sgt. Sam Reed called Singh and convinced to him to come outside and surrender.

A police report said police seized five handguns, a rifle and a pellet gun from the house, as well 1,750 rounds of various types of ammunition.

Singh is a family medicine doctor with practices in Johnson City and Kingsport. He is employed by Imperial Family Medicine.